Cottages

Instead of everyone challenging the tenants' right to stay, let's emphasize the public's right to protection of all the historical assets of Crystal Cove. It should be viewed as a living museum with a lot of problems. Throwing away the "exhibits" and "art" is not the way to solve them. The real history of the place will be lost when the tenants remove 80 years of artifacts that have not been documented. The state Department of Parks and Recreation is capable of better judgment and needs to look at the long view.

Several years ago I was telling Mrs. Fontaine, who lived in the bungalow next door, what I had heard about a house up the street, that its original cobblestone chimney had been replaced by a brick one. "Who told you that?" she demanded. "Mr. Wright over on Arbor." She laughed in scorn. "Why he's a newcomer." "He is? I thought he'd lived here a long time." "Heavens no. Only been here 25 years."

Recent news accounts, and your editorial of Aug. 6, have failed to stress the department's intention to increase, not decrease, public access to the Crystal Cove Historic District. They also have implied or outright stated that our plans for the district have been secret. The department's plans are encompassed in a 1994 report to the state Legislature and in the formal Request for Proposals that was issued in 1995. Both of these documents have always been public. While the department has not made available certain other documents, we have answered every question The Times has asked to the best of our ability.

If you go THE BEST WAY TO JACKSON, WYO., AND GRAND TETON NATIONAL PARK From LAX, United offers nonstop service and Delta and United offering connecting (change of planes) service to the Jackson Hole, Wyo., airport. WHERE TO STAY Cowboy Village Resort, 120 S. Flatcreek Drive, Jackson; (307) 733-3121 or 800-483-8667, http://www.townsquareinns.com . Dozens of log cabins with kitchenettes, close together, with indoor pool and grassy playground next door. About six blocks from town square.

My wife and I can attest to Michele and Tom Grimm's glowing description of the new Four Seasons Biltmore (July 19, Trip of the Week to Montecito). Our anniversary dinner in the La Marina dining room last week, celebrating a honeymoon at the Santa Barbara Biltmore 20 years ago, was first-rate. Yet we regret that the article failed to mention another of Montecito's historic resort hotels, Miramar-by-the-Sea. Under the bright blue roofs, so visible to and well-known by regular U.S. 101 travelers through Santa Barbara, lies a resort that is every bit as enjoyable as the others described in the article.

Re "Barlow Hospital's overreach," Editorial, April 14 As a committed preservationist, I want to thank you for your excellent editorial about the possible destruction of the historic Barlow cottages and that part of Elysian Park north of downtown Los Angeles. One more crucial point that has not yet been addressed is what 600-plus residential units proposed for the site would do to future parking and traffic flow on the only through street, Elysian Park Boulevard. Now, on nice days with families enjoying the park, there is just adequate parking; with car shows and festivals, parking is tight.

Sheep dot green hills. Pheasants hop across country lanes. Quaint cottages sit next to a tiny stone church. Neighbors who've known each other since birth greet strangers warmly. And for about $32 million, this leafy, nostalgic slice of England could be yours. The village of Linkenholt's 21 cottages, grand manor house, lush green cricket pitch and accompanying pavilion are part of an estate that also encompasses 1,500 acres of farmland and an additional 425 acres of woods. The entire estate is for sale -- as a whole -- with the only part not on the block being St. Peter's, built on the site of a 12th century church.

Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood rightfully boasts about the scores of legendary film stars who have walked through the front doors to attend world premieres. But contrary to popular belief, "The Wizard of Oz" wasn't first screened at the Hollywood Boulevard icon. Audience reaction screenings aside, that honor went to a small town -- not in Kansas, but in Wisconsin. On Aug. 12, 1939 -- three days before its first showing at Grauman's -- the movie opened at the Strand Theatre in Oconomowoc, Wis. At the time, Oconomowoc (pronounced oh-CON-oh-moe-wok )

Frank Brace and his sons had ventured into the woods for day hikes before, but nothing in the youngsters' backwoods experience prepared them for the moment their father dropped dead on a rugged mountain miles from civilization. Unable to read their map--and having no compass--the boys scrambled five miles over rock-strewn slopes and across meadows, relying on landmarks and their sense of direction to find their way back to some cottages they had seen when they hiked in two days before.

My hometown was a serious city, sadly bereft of architectural folly. For most of the year its traditional facades and graceful streets were a source of civic pride, but the end of October always rendered its aesthetic conventions curiously deficient. At the time, my childhood Halloweens seemed entirely adequate; I completed a satisfactory tenure as trick-or-treater, masquerading alternately as Gypsy, princess, pirate, witch and vampire.